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Critics citations honor the late great actor Joe Hietter, CAPA, CATCO, Shadowbox and other leading theater troupes

By: Michael Grossberg

The Columbus Dispatch - January 29, 2013 04:39 PM

CATCO, the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, Gallery Players, MadLab Theatre, Opera Columbus, Shadowbox Live and one of central Ohio’s greatest actors were honored Sunday by the Central Ohio Theatre Critics Circle. The 19 th annual citations, presented Sunday night as part of the 13 th annual Theater Awards Night organized by the Theatre Roundtable at the Jewish Community Center, go to "individuals or groups whose work promotes the higher values of theater or expands the possibilities of theater." The critics circle – which represents critics who review theater for area newspapers, publications, radio and websites including The Dispatch – adopted four 2013 citations by a unanimous vote:

To Shadowbox Live and Opera Columbus, for serving and potentially expanding opera’s central Ohio audience in 2012 with their innovative and accessible production of Joel Ivany’s English-language adaptation of La Boheme.

A scene from the Shadowbox Live and Opera Columbus adaptation of La Boheme. Credit: Shadowbox Live

To CATCO, Gallery Players and CAPA, for two collaborations that enriched the theater scene in central Ohio: to CATCO and Gallery Players, for the North American premiere of James Phillips’ The Rubenstein Kiss; and to CATCO and CAPA, for their presentation of the touring production of Harold Pinter’s The Caretaker starring Jonathan Pryce.

A scene from The Rubenstein Kiss. File photo

To MadLab, for giving high school playwrights and actors the opportunity to hone and display their talents in front of a general audience with 2012’s inaugural presentation of the Young Writers Short Play Festival.

A scene from MadLab's Young Writers Short Play Festival. Credit: MadLab

A Roy Bowen Lifetime Achievement Award to the late C. Joseph Hietter, a veteran actor who played leading roles to consistent acclaim in productions at central Ohio’s leading theaters, including I Was Young, Now I’m Wonderful at Grandparents Living Theatre (now SRO Theatre Company); Present Laughter and To Kill a Mockingbird at Players Theatre; and All My Sons, The Gin Game and a host of other plays at CATCO, which he helped launch in 1985 with Mass Appeal.

Joe Hietter with Linda Dorff in the CATCO production of The Gin Game. Credit: CATCO

TRIBUTE TO JOE HIETTER

Here is an edited version of the remarks I made Sunday night onstage at the Jewish Community Center’s Roth/Resler Theatre, when I presented the Bowen Award, which was accepted by Hietter’s son, John, a Worthington resident:

The person we honor tonight with the 2013 Toy Bowen lifetime achievement award was a wonderful actor and director as well as a great guy.

Many remember him as the drill sergeant training a bunch of clueless recruits in the Grandparents Living Theatre musical I Was Young, Now I’m Wonderful, which toured to Washington D.C. and Europe.

Critic Joy Reilly remembers him for being "not only extremely talented but a great ensemble member, a wonderfully versatile actor and a powerful leading actor.

"I loved directing him," she said.

"In my memory of him, he was considered among the the very best actors during the time he lived in the Columbus area. He was quite brilliant at comedy --- very detailed and observant of the little absurdities in life."

"I remember him," Joy added, "sitting on stage alone interpreting a serious monologue that began --- "I Miss Being Needed---- once the whole family depended on me--- I miss their need"

He made it a very moving, believable portrait of the loneliness that can be a very painful part of the aging process."

Joy was talking, of course, about Joe Hietter.

In January 1985 at the YWCA building on S. Fourth St., Joe played a parish priest in Mass Appeal, a historically significant Columbus production. It marked the formal stage debut of Geoffrey Nelson’s then-fledgling Contemporary American Theatre Company, which as we know later developed into central Ohio’s professional Equity theater company.

Mass Appeal was the first of 11 leading roles that Hietter would play at CATCO. Among the others, many of us have fond memories of seeing Joe as the competitive senior citizen opposite Linda Dorff in The Gin Game, the fed-up father in Homeward Bound, the straight-laced district court judge embroiled in the battle of egos of Handy Dandy and the shady owner of a Chicago resale shop in David Mamet’s American Buffalo.

At Players Theatre, he played many more roles, including one I was fortunate to see very early in my first months at the Dispatch when he led an 11-member ensemble as the hammy actor Gary Essendine in Noel Coward’s Present laughter.

As I wrote in my January 1986 review, Joe gave the "necessary sheen of elegance" to the British playwright’s comedy of manners.

"Present Laughter is an actor's delight largely because of its highly theatrical style and subject, which is, ultimately, about the allure of the theater itself," I wrote.

"Recognizing themselves in the theater folk they portray, the cast romps through Coward's chic repartee like cats through catnip."

And Joe would romp through more than another quarter century of A Well-Respected Life in the Theater.

One of his best roles came in Handy Dandy, a two-hander opposite Ionia Zelenka, who he also co-starred with in Players Theatre’s On Golden Pond. (Zelenka, who also died last year, was one of the first recipients of a Roy Bowen Lifetime Achievement Award; the Theatre Roundtable dedicated its 2013 awards night to Hietter and Zelenka.)

Here’s part of what I said about the pair in my 1988 review:

"Sex, politics and religion are the three no-nos of polite conversation. Raising any of these taboo topics risks unpleasant argument. But what can be a disaster in life often proves to be the opposite in the theater.All three controversial subjects enliven Contemporary American Theatre Company's superbly acted Columbus premiere of Handy DandySet in Boston in 1987, William Gibson's comedy-drama revolves around a series of confrontations between a radical nun and a conservative judge.Theirs is a battle of egos that soon widens into a war of wits and words. All he wants is to uphold the law. All she wants is to change the world...Zelenka's Molly is a memorable character, feisty but querulous, tough but vulnerable. Hietter’s Henry is an easily exasperated realist whose compassion gradually shines through. Either of these veteran actors has the strength to hold the stage alone. They prove it once again in this happy reunion."

And here is an excerpt from my last review of Joe as the morally compromised father in CATCO’s revival of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons:

"Hietter is superb in a tricky role - In the first act, projecting easygoing, subtly evasive charm, & In the second, sliding into blustery defensiveness and regret."

Today, we regret his passing.... but who could regret seeing any of the memorable performances that Joe gave over so many years?